It seemed like hours passed while Cal and I listened to the keys clack in silence, but in reality it was probably a matter of mere minutes before Felix finally shut the computer down and lowered the top. “Sorry. There’s no sign Audio Cloak was ever used on this computer.”

I felt my shoulders sag. My one good lead, crushed. “Well, maybe she has another computer. In another room!”

Felix shook his head, his face stern. “No way. We’re out of here, Bender.”

“But—”

“No buts. This has gone far enough.”

“He’s right,” Cal said.

I shot him a mutinous look.

“The longer we stay, the greater chance someone will see us,” he reasoned.

Two to one. I was sorely outnumbered. “Fine,” I conceded, crossing my arms over my chest as Cal led the way downstairs, Felix bringing up the rear as if afraid I might bolt into another room if he let me out of his sight. (Which, honestly, I might have.) I was about to turn back into the guest room with the open lock when Felix gestured toward the front door.

“We should go out the front. Less conspicuous.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Okay, how did you get in the front?

Wasn’t the door locked?”

He shrugged. “I carry picks.”

Jesus, was everyone more experienced at breaking and entering than I was?

We quickly filed out the door, clicking it shut behind us, and crossed the street to where Felix’s beat-up Dodge was parked behind the Hummer. And behind him was Cam’s Jeep, Cam sitting on the tailgate.

“Some lookout you are,” I mumbled as I passed her.

She mouthed, “sorry,” at me.

“It wasn’t Cam’s fault,” Felix said, unlocking his car.

I paused. That statement suddenly begged the question—whose fault was it?

“Soooooo, how did you know we were here?”

“Allie told me.”

I felt my jaw clench, remembering the way her eyes had followed Cal and me to the elevators. She must have eavesdropped on the whole conversation. When I got my hands on that blonde…

“Speaking of whom,” Felix continued, unaware of the rage building in my gut, “she tells me you interviewed Pines today?”

I swallowed my temper, telling myself to save it for the blonde. (I was out of quarters anyway.) “We did. And have we got a scoop on the Mullins guy.” I filled him in on how Pines had alleged Mullins was trying to blackmail him just before his death. “If he tried it with Pines, maybe he tried it with someone else who wasn’t as confident, and they killed him.”

Felix listened with his poker face in place, mulling this over. Finally he said, “I like it. I want to know who else Mullins might have been trying to blackmail. Start with his co-stars. Find out who else was on the film with Pines and Mullins.”

“On it!” I promised.